Obsidian Entertainment has announced an upcoming patch for Pillars of Eternity that will add a turn-based combat system to the game — 10 years after its release. The exact release date for the update is still unknown, but the developers are planning an open beta to which players will be invited.
After the release of Avowed, many players became interested in the world of Eor, in which the events of both of the studio's games take place. However, the original Pillars of Eternity has a real-time combat system with a tactical pause. That is, characters can attack opponents and use abilities independently, but the player can intervene and give specific orders in real time or during the pause.
This combat system was very common among classic CRPGs, and Obsidian decided to stick with the tradition. However, many modern players complain about the inconvenience of this approach.
A similar situation occurred with Baldur's Gate. After the release of the extremely popular third part, many players decided to play the classic dilogy and were disappointed with its combat system.
Obsidian added a turn-based mode to Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire in patch 4.1, approximately eight months after the game's release. Game designer Josh Sawyer, who worked on Baldur's Gate II and both Pillars of Eternity installments, said in a 2023 interview that the real-time combat system with tactical pause was added to the game specifically for the old-school CRPG fans who helped fund the game on Kickstarter.